Today’s message is from Galatians 2:11-21. The HCSB translators gave this passage the title Freedom from the Law. This is about salvation by grace through faith (which is the main theme of Galatians). You are not justified—declared righteous or made righteous—you do not, to use the wording of one of the Bible paraphrases, “receive God’s approval by your own effort to live according to a set of standards”. You are saved by grace through faith. If you think you are saved by your own effort, you will be lost. (And, by the way, if you think that being saved by grace through faith means, “Now I can go out and sin freely,” you are certainly not saved.)

¹¹But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. ¹²For he used to eat with the Gentiles before certain men came from James. However, when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, because he feared those from the circumcision party. ¹³Then the rest of the Jews joined his hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. ¹⁴But when I saw that they were deviating from the truth of the gospel, I told Cephas in front of everyone, “If you, who are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel Gentiles to live like Jews?”

¹⁵We are Jews by birth and not “Gentile sinners”; ¹⁶yet we know that no one is justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no human being will be justified. ¹⁷But if, while seeking to be justified by Christ, we ourselves are also found to be sinners, is Christ then a promoter of sin? Absolutely not! ¹⁸If I rebuild those things that I tore down, I show myself to be a lawbreaker. ¹⁹For through the law I have died to the law, that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; ²⁰and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. ²¹I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing. (Galatians~2:11-21)

Today’s passage starts with the word “but”—“But when Cephas came to Antioch...” “But” refers to what the apostle had just said. So we need to remember what came before today’s passage. We need to remember clear back to last week (unless you’ve been reading your Bibles since then and don’t have to remember that far back).

In last week’s passage the apostle Paul talked about meeting with the apostles and elders in Jerusalem to confirm that what he had been teaching agreed with what they had been teaching—that you were saved by grace through faith and that there was no requirement to be circumcised or keep the Law of Moses in order to be saved. The reason for this was that some men, whom Paul referred to as “false brothers”, had been teaching that you did have to be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses in order to be saved.

But it was Peter, himself, who reminded the whole group of what the Lord had showed him concerning the Gentile believers. I’m going to read from Acts 15:7-11): “After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them: ‘Brothers, you are aware that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the gospel message and believe. And God, who knows the heart, testified to them by giving the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. Why, then, are you now testing God by putting on the disciples’ necks a yoke that neither our forefathers nor we have been able to bear? On the contrary, we believe we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way they are.’” (Acts 15:7-11)

Then, after the apostles and elders had heard the report from Paul and Barnabas about God’s work of salvation among the Gentiles, James, spoke up and quoted Old Testament Scriptures to prove that God intended to bring salvation to the Gentiles. The group accepted what Peter and James had to say and decided to send a letter to the Gentile churches. It was James who formulated what was to be in the letter.

At the meeting with the apostles and elders Peter had said, “On the contrary, we believe we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way they are.” “But,” says Paul in the first verse of today’s passage, “when Cephas (that’s Peter’s name in Aramaic) came to Antioch (Antioch was the headquarters of the church outside of Jerusalem)... “When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. For he used to eat with the Gentiles before certain men came from James. However, when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, because he feared those from the circumcision party.”

And Paul says that the rest of the Jews joined his hypocrisy so that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. (verse 13) Barnabas was Paul’s first partner in spreading the gospel. It was Barnabas who had been with Paul in Antioch and had, along with Paul, disputed with those that were arguing that you had to be circumcised in order to be saved. It was Barnabas who traveled with Paul to Jerusalem to bring the question of circumcision and the keeping of the law before the apostles and elders. And now he was also joining in the hypocrisy. What’s going on here?

Here’s a likely scenario. In the early church, when they had the Lord’s Supper, they had a dinner along with it. Now the Antioch church had both Jewish and Gentile believers. All of them believed that they were saved by grace through faith. But some of the Jewish believers just couldn’t bring themselves to eat food that wasn’t “clean” food (no pork chops, sausage or bacon). It wasn’t because they were afraid that they would lose their salvation, but because that was their life-long training and habit. (They eat dogs over in Asia. But I don’t think I could ever do such a thing.) The church in Antioch would have had a separate table where only “clean” food was served set up for those who didn’t want to eat the Gentile food.

Anyway, when Peter came to visit the Antioch church, he evidently ate with the Gentiles. But when the “certain men” came from James (that is, from Jerusalem) to visit the Antioch church, Peter started eating at the table with the Jewish food. He probably never ate any “unclean” food when he was in Jerusalem. The church in Jerusalem would have been virtually 100 percent Jewish. It’s unlikely that they would have even served “unclean” food. Paul says that when these certain men came, it was because of fear that Peter began to eat at the table with the Jewish food.

Paul says that these certain men were members of the “circumcision” party (at least some of them). Now I think these men were believers—that they believed that they were saved by grace through faith, not through keeping of the Law of Moses—but that they had a certain amount of pride in their heritage and their keeping of the law—the same kind of pride that Paul had had before he met Christ and that he likely struggled with for some time after he had met Christ (“What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” –Rom.~7:24-25) I think Peter was afraid that these men would look down on him. Doesn’t that have to do with pride, also? If you are humble, it doesn’t matter whether anyone looks down on you. You know that you are a sinner saved by grace. Grace is God’s favor. He doesn’t look down on you.

The apostle Paul called what the apostle Peter did hypocrisy. Why is it hypocrisy? When we say we believe one thing and our actions show something else altogether, we call it hypocrisy. In Peter’s case, he believed one thing, that believers are free from the Law of Moses and saved by grace. But his actions were showing something different. In verse 14 Paul says, “But when I saw that they were deviating from the truth of the gospel, I told Cephas in front of everyone, “If you, who are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel Gentiles to live like Jews?” Paul’s point was that Peter’s actions were telling the Gentiles that they had to live like Jews. He was a hypocrite.

Do you behave differently depending on who is around? Do you speak differently depending whom you are speaking to? I’m guilty. (But sometimes it’s legitimate. The apostle Paul says, “To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win Jews; to those under the law, like one under the law—though I myself am not under the law—to win those under the law. To those who are outside the law, like one outside the law—not being outside God's law, but under the law of Christ—to win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, in order to win the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that I may by all means save some.” –1 Cor.~9:20-22) It depends on your motives. Peter’s motive was fear—and he was sending a bad message to those around him. All of the Jewish believers followed him. After all, he was the apostle Peter. (But, somehow I am encouraged to find out that even the apostle Peter had to be rebuked after many years of serving our Lord. I remember reading somewhere that according to tradition, doubting Thomas was failing as an apostle to take the gospel to the ends of the earth (or anywhere else, for that matter) until he was kidnapped and sold into slavery in India. It was then that he began to preach the gospel and establish churches. He was the first to take the gospel outside the Roman Empire. There are still Christian in India that trace their heritage back to Thomas. However, I’m not sure that I want to be corrected (or is it encouraged) the way Thomas was according to the tradition.)

If it was possible for one of the greatest of the apostles to start to stray from the truth of the gospel or, at least lead others to do so, how much easier might it be for us? But Paul rebuked Peter—and he did it in front of all of the rest of them. We need to correct each other. I’ve said it many times. God designed things so that we need each other.

I try to say what I think the word of God says. But every day—most days, anyway—I fail to live up to the word of God. Mooma sees it most. I have Mooma to remind me. But all of us need each other. But more than that, we need the Holy Spirit—we need Jesus. It’s pride that leads to the kind of fear that Paul said had gotten hold of Peter. “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” We are absolutely dependent on Jesus. We are blessed if we know it. The kingdom of heaven is ours.